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Why write, Sally, you who are alive
today, the twenty-seventh of January year
two hundred thousand and nine?

Why write: let me spell it for you.
There are twenty-four hours in a day,
and sixty minutes in each hour.
I hope that of these multitudes I can spend
at least one-sixth sleeping;
from eight o’clock to four I attend school
(this being a modern and stable state
dedicated to the well-being and
improvement of its youth)
Beyond this there are the tasks assigned
to me by others,
by myself,
and by the universe.

Write: because the spoken word does not become me.
Write: because the spoken word is far too easy.
Write: because there are few who care about remembering,
but that is what this day is about

The time for war is over.
laugh and say,
naive youth – activist pacifist environmentalist feminist artist
and I shall say
Yes.
This is the twenty-first century,
it has been long enough now.